DGW

DGW

Originally posted by pbirkett - Mon Sep 13, 2004

The location of this dealer made it a natural choice for where to buy my Fabia vRS, as it is a mere 10 minutes walk from my work place in Newcastle Upon Tyne.


The quality of the showroom is quite good, but so it should be considering it is a brand new building.


When I first expressed interest in the Fabia vRS I went for a test drive, but was given no more than 5 miles in a congested city to find out what the car is like - not enough. However, the salesman (Gary Searle) is a polite and helpful man, a theme which continues during all of our meetings.


I ordered the car and was given a delivery date. They failed to meet the delivery date, but I was not told; No, I had to find this out by chasing them up days before I was supposed to get it. I would have thought it common courtesy to let me know that so I did not arrive at the garage on the day to find no car.


However, Gary sorted me out with an alternative car, a silver one (I ordered red) which was available straight away due to a cancellation. They met me half way with the cost of the metallic paint.


I asked about oil having read this forum, being that it is important to monitor this and not to let it run out. They told me that if it was low, to bring it in and they would top it up (nice of them I thought). However, when that time came, I was charged £12 for a litre of oil.


Finally, my latest dealing with this dealer was today for the service. Firstly, it costs an extortionate £175 for a 10,000 miles service. And if that was not bad enough, the car was not cleaned up. When I had a Nissan the car would receive a wash and valet on each service. When I enquired about this, I was told "they normally do clean the cars, but the cleaner was not here today". Well thats great isnt it? Nissan charge almost half as much for service, and the car appears new when you pick it up on a night. Not this time, the car was worse than when I dropped it off.


Overall, I am not very impressed with this dealer. Particularly the prices, which are disgusting, especially when I hear about people paying less than half of that in other places of the country.


Overall, do not be fooled by Skoda. The Fabia vRS may be a cheap to insure, good value hatch, but the servicing prices are pure extortion. £223 for the 20,000 mile service, and well over £300 for the 40,000 service are prices I have to look forward to in future. Needless to say, I will be shopping around very carefully in future.

DGW

Originally posted by jmed - Fri Jan 7, 2005

The location of this dealer made it a natural choice for where to buy my Fabia vRS, as it is a mere 10 minutes walk from my work place in Newcastle Upon Tyne.


The quality of the showroom is quite good, but so it should be considering it is a brand new building.


When I first expressed interest in the Fabia vRS I went for a test drive, but was given no more than 5 miles in a congested city to find out what the car is like - not enough. However, the salesman (Gary Searle) is a polite and helpful man, a theme which continues during all of our meetings.


I ordered the car and was given a delivery date. They failed to meet the delivery date, but I was not told; No, I had to find this out by chasing them up days before I was supposed to get it. I would have thought it common courtesy to let me know that so I did not arrive at the garage on the day to find no car.


However, Gary sorted me out with an alternative car, a silver one (I ordered red) which was available straight away due to a cancellation. They met me half way with the cost of the metallic paint.


I asked about oil having read this forum, being that it is important to monitor this and not to let it run out. They told me that if it was low, to bring it in and they would top it up (nice of them I thought). However, when that time came, I was charged £12 for a litre of oil.


Finally, my latest dealing with this dealer was today for the service. Firstly, it costs an extortionate £175 for a 10,000 miles service. And if that was not bad enough, the car was not cleaned up. When I had a Nissan the car would receive a wash and valet on each service. When I enquired about this, I was told "they normally do clean the cars, but the cleaner was not here today". Well thats great isnt it? Nissan charge almost half as much for service, and the car appears new when you pick it up on a night. Not this time, the car was worse than when I dropped it off.


Overall, I am not very impressed with this dealer. Particularly the prices, which are disgusting, especially when I hear about people paying less than half of that in other places of the country.


Overall, do not be fooled by Skoda. The Fabia vRS may be a cheap to insure, good value hatch, but the servicing prices are pure extortion. £223 for the 20,000 mile service, and well over £300 for the 40,000 service are prices I have to look forward to in future. Needless to say, I will be shopping around very carefully in future.

DGW

Originally posted by kartingmofos - Thu Mar 17, 2005

i live 10 miles away from this dealership and i actually work for benfield motors but in there fiat/alfa place and i have to admitt the service from here is laxy dazy,very helpful when purchasing the vehicle but once they have your money don't seem bothered when comes to aftersales.


my car overheated on mon 14/03/05 telephoned them told me to drop it in but when i gave them the keys they could'nt look at it until tues 22/03/05
nothing i can do though as its undrivable at the moment -no courtesy car nothing and im a employee of this company

JMK2

OK it was nearly 6 years ago but I bought a felicia from them. Car wasn't even properly cleaned when I picked it up (OK it was 3 years old but I didn't expect sweet wrapers in the rear ashtrays).

Car was not serviced and I had to take it to the local Halfords for new break pads within 2 weeks of purchase. I ended up getting the car serviced at my own expense from an ex Skoda dealer.

After a mere 9 months I needed a diesel due to a job move (was doing 800 miles a week) - and a Fabia was what I wanted. I was offered £1800 for a car I had bought for £4800 9 months and 12000 miles earlier. Other Skoda dealers offered £3k. Thankfully I had no problems with the Felicia but I would not recomend this dealer because of this.

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I would like to put something here, but just can't think what

FTM

I used them a few times for my mk1 vRS

they fixed a problem with the central locking and were very quick

they also replaced all 4 coil packs when 1 went and even included a copy of the bulletin when I picked the car up to explain why they had done it

just bought a mk2 vRS of them and they gave a good price on my old car and we were up front with everything and explained everything very clearly...their receptionist is also canny to craic on with while you wait


plus its close to the town centre..when i had my last service I got it done on a saturday so I could walk over and do some shopping

they obviously get a lot of business from the taxi drivers in Newcastle as just about every taxi is a skoda with a Benfield sticker (and there are a hell of a lot of them in Newcastle, mk1 and mk2 octavias as well as a few superbs..most of them black)...this makes me wonder how many private sales they need...keep the taxi drivers sweet and you have plenty of business...so if you go in to buy a tdi tell them you are a taxi driver

Porsenna

I also had a bit of a bad experience with them, but luckily didn't buy anything from them, and now I'm happy I chose that way! The seller tried to be friendly but was clearly acting, and was as pushy as hell. Even when I made it clear that I thought the car he was offering me was overpriced, he didn't cut a single pound off (and even a minor discount would have convinced me to buy), and he even called in his manager for support! This doesn't sound like good selling strategy!

The guy even called me at home and emailed me more than once, once again after being told I was not going to buy for that price, and my wife reports that he paid a last call just a couple of days ago to tell that "Your little car has been sold now, you lost a great occasion!"

What the hell? I'm sooo not going to buy anything from them in the future, and will stay clear of their repair service!

amac31

Very poor service, does not carry many parts in stock, Have to pay for parts first to order them and then collect two days later this is a thirty mile round trip for me.
Now started to use ETOS and now buy cross refferenced parts from my very local and helpful VW dealer

burno20v

Very expensive for servicing! Priced a 20,000 mile service for my fathers fabia 1.2 htp comfort and a 60,000 service for my fabia vrs and was quoted £270 for each service!!! My father went to sedgefield motor co and had same service inc brake fluid change done for £159 inc,they were also £2500 adrift on a deal for a new fabia my father tried to buy three years ago,clown in showroom added up "extras" which were standard on comfort se at the time to the tune of £1000 and added that to list price.plus they undervalued trade in by £1500! New fabia was bought from philip wilks witton gilbert who were superb.

Chris the Tiger

I'm a Fabia owner of a few years and I'm working away from home in Newcastle for 5 weeks and want to get my Skoda looked at (nothing major but a slight rumbling and want to make sure if there is a problem I get it sorted sooner rather than later). I Googled and got Benfields details and was about to book in but saw this page and decided it was probably best not to! Anyway, I can't find any more listed garages nearby and am struggling to find recommendations. Anyone got any suggestions?

nobeard

I've used them a couple of times in recent months for warranty work - the usual stuff - leaking door seals, stutter, drop links etc. No quibbles from them about putting any of it right.

They knew about all the common faults straight away, booked it in quickly, did the job as expected, rang me to tell me it was done - so no complaints. Was offered a courtesy car etc.

The guys on Service Reception were perfectly courteous and helpful. I can't comment on servicing as I always use my local garage. But I'm more than happy to leave it there for warranty work - which is more than I can say from past experiences with some other brands.

IainsTheName

When buying my car, they bent over backwards for me, servicing and other faults, they don't bother.


3 times it's been in and 3 times I've not had a courtesy car, always been told they're "Fully booked"

Also, the last time it went in (June I think) for an Exhaust and glow plug warning light activation I was asked to bring it in myself, got offered no courtesy car in exchange and when I asked for a courtesy lift off one of the staff to the nearest Metro station the receptionist said they were "Too busy" (Feet up on desks on a lazy Monday morning busy? yeah right) then to top it all off after receiving my receipt and walked half way through Newcastle City Centre I'd realised the stupid receptionist had given me a receipt to an entirely different car!

After ringing the lad up they said it wouldn't make a difference and to just present that after coming in.

Anyway booked it in at about 11ish and rang before I left Newcastle at half 3 to see if it would be ready, they told me no it wouldn't be ready today so as I got home (Using Public transport...*Shudders*) they rang me at 20 past 4 to tell me my car was ready to pick up. Got there at 10 to 5 after a courteous lift from my sister and got given my keys and maze well have been told to bugger off, no receipt, no papers telling me what was carried out or anything, also my car hadn't been cleaned at all and 12 miles had been put onto the clock, is a test drive needed for 12 miles long?

Anyway After sales this company is terrible in my opinion, stay away!

zappa_kat

When I had my mark 1 vRS Octy I had the 2nd gear selection problem...
I took the car to Benfield, they gave me a date for getting the car back. This date kept getting extended & they let me keep the fabia courtesy car I was loaned.

I eventually got the Octy back 10 days late. They kept blaming "parts not available"...

When I got the car back I noticed the exhaust tailpipe was at a strange angle, the mechanic blamed the fact it was removed to access the gearbox. Fair enough.

I did go to the Dealers a while later & watched one of the Nissan mechanics (who share the site) crash into two other cars as the site is very, very tight... the service desk rang the damaged cars owners & claimed "parts not available" whilst they sent the said cars to a bodyshop.... This makes me think they may have bumped my car too.... I looked under my Octy & the exhaust had been broken, a sleeve put over the break in the pipe & it was held on with heavy duty hose clips.

I also discussed selling my Octy with the vRS "expert". He offered me £3.5k less than the book price. I kept the car for 2 more years & still got over £1500 more than the to**er offered me.

Would I use Benfield's again? Not an effing chance....